


frequency and wavelength

by KuroFae



Series: i do know two things [1]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Trope Bingo Round 14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24018136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuroFae/pseuds/KuroFae
Summary: What Carlos doesn’t have experience in is this: getting back to his studio apartment above the absolutely shady pizza place in an astonishingly interesting town after an alarmingly long day and discovering a new soulmark branded into his chest.
Relationships: Carlos/Cecil Palmer
Series: i do know two things [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1732459
Comments: 28
Kudos: 86
Collections: Trope Bingo: Round Fourteen





	frequency and wavelength

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for 'Soul Bonding / Soulmates.' See my card [here](https://kurofae.dreamwidth.org/496.html)!

Fatumamorology is not a field Carlos has any experience in.

Well, that’s not entirely true. He is a scientist, and it is a science, so he has some experience in it. He understands the scientific method, and he understands that the jagged, cramped soundwaves imprinted on his skin have been appearing there, inky black and solid, throughout his life. He understands how the tiny oscillations represent movement of air, and how auditory perception of those movements works. He understands frequency and wavelength. Scientifically, Carlos has some experience in it. 

Unscientifically; anecdotally, Carlos also has some experience. He knows the wave pressed into his left forearm is representative of his own voice calling ‘Mama.’ He knows this, because that is all he has ever called his mother, and when they hug he presses his forearm up against the back of her neck where her ‘Mijo’ sits and can see the marks glow and feel the warmth the resonance gives off against his own skin. There is another wave on the inside of his left ankle that represents how he says his brother’s name, and the two of them knock their feet together under the table as kids to feel the comforting rush of warmth and buzzing from the marks’ interaction. His mark for his sister’s name isn’t a wave - it’s a brushstroke, rounded at one end and tapering, and crossed at the bottom with a quick flick of a sideways 'V'. It’s how the signing of her name feels, where he shifts from the ‘M’ to the ‘Y’ in ‘Maya’ with the slip of his thumb and the extension of his pinkie. So yes, Carlos has experience in the science of soulmates.

What Carlos doesn’t have experience in is this: getting back to his studio apartment above the absolutely shady pizza place in an astonishingly interesting town after an alarmingly long day and discovering a new soundwave branded into his chest. 

It’s short. Barely longer than ‘Mama’ on his arm and much shorter than ‘Emilio’ on his ankle. It sits three inches below his suprasternal notch in between his pecs, dark and visible under his chest hair. He stares at it in the bathroom mirror, t-shirt still wrapped around his elbows.

He thinks it’s just folklore when people say that the closer a mark is to your heart the more romantic, but fatumamorology is not a field Carlos has any experience in.

He met so many people today. He shook so many hands, repeated so many names back. He has absolutely no idea who this mark could be for. 

He takes a deep breath in to stifle the panic in his throat. He breathes out, slow, collected, calm. 

“... Fuck.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fatumamorology is an unholy mash up of 'fatum' and 'amor,' which are Latin for fate and love respectively and idk! That seemed to work. 
> 
> [Here's](https://tinyurl.com/y7phh7z5) how I pictured Carlos' mark for Maya. My apologies if the sign described is an actual sign and not appropriate as shorthand for a name! I don't know ASL and I wouldn't even know where to begin to reverse search a sign! Please feel free to correct me!


End file.
